The Current Job Market Is Shockingly Bad For 20-Something Men

The Great Recession was disastrous across all worker demographics, but it was especially bad for men in their 20s.

While a greater percentage of men than women are still employed full-time, women have fared much better in the recent past, according to a new study from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW). As traditional blue-collar jobs have declined, replaced by positions that demand more skills and education, 20-something men have struggled to stay employed, while women have pursued more advanced degrees that help them in today's market.

"For men, this is kind of a wake up call," says Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown CEW. "The prospects are declining and what prospects there are aren't going to last. It's taking a while for the blue-collar economy to melt down, but it's melting."

In the last decade, the share of men ages 26 to 30 employed full-time fell from 80% in 2000 to 65% in 2012, the study finds. Over the same period, the proportion of women employed full-time in that age bracket also declined, but only from 56% to 50% — a drop of six percentage points as opposed to men's 15:

Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce

The Georgetown study chalks much of this up to a fundamental shift in the economy. In recent decades, we've moved from an economy based on goods and manufacturing to one reliant on information services. This continues to radically redefine jobs, especially entry-level work. As technology replaces low-skill workers and high-skill workers come into greater demand, greater emphasis is placed on education and talent.

Those changes have hit young men especially hard. Blue-collar employment shrunk from 35% to 19% of employees ages 18 to 24 between 1980 and 2010. At the same time, the percentages of young men working in sales/office support roles and in managerial/professional office positions have stalled. The only significant growth in jobs for young men has occurred in the food and personal services sector:

Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce

In other words, young men are being pushed out of the blue-collar jobs that used to employ the greatest proportion of their age group, but have been unable to make their way into higher level opportunities. Instead, they're getting stuck in food and service occupations.

Another factor tripping up young men in today's economy is education. On the whole, men in their 20s have fallen behind women in higher education, putting them at a disadvantage for securing jobs that require more skills and knowledge. Women have consistently outpaced men in this arena. The majority of college degrees are now earned by women. In 2010, the latest year cited in the study, 36% of women ages 25 to 29 held a Bachelor's degree or higher, as opposed to 28% of men. You can see from this chart, which shows college enrollment by gender over time, how the education gap has widened over the past decade:

Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce

The simple fact remains that men have always held a greater share of jobs in the U.S. than women. So men started with a higher baseline, which makes it easier for them to fall from it. Women started at a lower baseline, which makes it easier for them to move up in the workforce (or at least not fall so far).

"Men start out high and come down. Women still haven't caught up with men," says Carnevale, "but in a way, the economy is more favorable to women."